


Bernie

by zizis



Category: Holby City
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-11 02:40:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18421125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zizis/pseuds/zizis
Summary: A wee AU that places Bernie and Serena as having met at medical school and finds them taking a short holiday together at Bernie’s grandparent’s home.





	Bernie

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is dedicated to @MegRedgrave on her 21st birthday. Happy Birthday lovely !

Bernie is acutely aware of just how paper thin the walls of the bedroom are. Childhood nights spent in this very bed listening to the sonorous tones of her grandfather’s snores permeating through them. So very different to the chill silence of her parents’ home. But right now Bernie’s concern is only to contain the sounds that threaten to break through from her side of the wall.

For she knows that Serena will not, cannot, be quiet. She knows that at any moment Serena will proclaim the approaching arrival of her orgasm and that it will burst from her in triumphant release. Just as she knows exactly where on the side of Serena’s neck to suck and lave so as to make Serena shiver with pleasure and her skin to pebble into goose flesh. The way she knows to stretch Serena’s arms above her head, and smooth her hand down the pale soft skin of her inner arm, across her armpit, and down around the side of her breast. The way she knows exactly how hard to suck the swollen nipple rising there. How to dance her fingers through her damp curls. How far to dip her tongue. Which direction to circle.

All these things, and more, Bernie knows because she has made a study of Serena over the six months they have been together. A study of making love to Serena. And Bernie is a diligent student.

And now she recognises the urgency of Serena’s rolling hips as they rise towards her. She raises her head from between Serena’s thighs, leaving her fingers curling and plunging inside her, and smothers Serena’s imminent cries with her own mouth pressed open against Serena’s, swallowing her roars of pleasure.

*******

Afterwards she kisses Serena lightly, as she lies there recovering her breath. Places her hand on Serena’s chest, absorbing the racing thump of her heartbeat. Serena exhales softly and opens her eyes. She smiles at Bernie, who kisses her temple and pulls her close. They lie curled up in each other for a while, drifting.

Bernie gazes up at the shadowed low ceiling. The curtains at the window, never completely shut. A legacy from her childhood, when she needed the suggestion of the outside world, the suggestion of possible escape, the chink of street light breaking into the room. But now there is neither need nor point…..only the pitch black of the night outside until dawn, and the safe comfort of a blanket cocoon until then. Yet some habits never die.

It is years since she has stayed at her grandparents’. As an only child she longed for those holidays when her parents dispatched her to stay with them, unable or unwilling themselves to take time away from their work to be with her. Or each other. Serena snuffles softly into her neck. Bernie melts into the soft heat of Serena’s skin. She feels the blanket of sleep creep up over her. She wonders whether her grandfather will arrive at the side of her bed with a cup of sweet milky tea, a digestive biscuit perched on the saucer edge, as he did every morning. Always a cup and saucer. At the thought, a smile traces across her face as she absently strokes Serena’s head. Then she stops. Ah. Serena.

“Serena ?”

“mmm?” is the drowsy response.

“We need to get some clothes on, and one of us into the pullout.”

Another quiet querying murmur.

“My grandfather. He brings tea. In the morning. He can’t find us like this.”

“Ohhh.” A soft reluctant but acquiescent moan.

And Bernie eases a muzzy Serena into her discarded pyjama top, slowly buttoning it up, one deliberate button at a time, planting a soft farewell kiss to each stretch of skin before it disappears behind the brushed cotton material.  As Serena raises her hips to allow Bernie to drag her pyjama bottoms up, Bernie cannot help but audibly shudder, at the still glistening sight and the unmistakable thick aroma of her sex. She wants Serena. She always wants Serena.

********

In the end it is Bernie who takes the pullout and its thin mattress. Feels, as the host and as a gentleman, it is only right that Serena gets the warm comfy bed. Serena puts up little resistance. It’s a while before she drifts off, and she doesn’t feel at all guilty lying there retracing her routes across Serena’s body in her mind, or of savouring the scent that lingers on her fingers.

When morning comes she is awoken by a knock on the door, and the sound of her grandfather’s voice beyond, “Good morning.”

The door opens and sure enough there he stands a cup and saucer in each hand, a digestive biscuit perched on the side of each, just as she remembered.

“I hope you both slept well ?” he asks as he proffers one to a slightly bemused Serena, who manages a polite nod and thank you.

“Thanks,” Bernie whispers, her heart full of love for Serena, for her grandfather, for the remembrance of a childhood haven.

He is respectful and retreats back into the hallway. Bernie is no eight year old now, and whereas in those days he would have sat on the bed edge whilst she drank her tea and chatted about the day to come, he knows those times have passed. Bernie is twenty two now, has almost completed her medical degree, but even now it seems she still needs refuge of a sort. He doesn’t ask why or what from. Knows it is enough that he is here and Bernie knows she is welcome.

*********

It is not until breakfast that he asks about their plans. Bernie mentions a small rural museum with a working mill attached that they might visit, and take a walk along the nearby cliffs.

“Bernie, could you give me a hand in the kitchen ?” her grandmother asks as she starts to clear the dishes.

“Sure !”

“Can I help too ?” Serena asks.

“No. It’s fine. Bernie will do,” her grandmother smiles, “Why don’t you let Tom show you the route on the map. I’m sure he can suggest a pub or two along the way for your lunch.”

Tom, given his task, embraces it enthusiastically. “Come through to the sitting room Serena. We can look at the map there.”

Bernie follows her grandmother through to the kitchen. She feels a sense of unease, knows her grandmother wants to speak to her, privately. Is not sure she is ready.

“Wash or dry ?”

“Wash,” she answers, and hopes this gives her scope to turn away and immerse herself in the dishes if needs be.

“It’s so lovely to see you Bernie,” her grandmother starts, “It feels like such a long time since you last came to stay.”

“I know. I’m so sorry. It’s just so full on…..”

“Oh. I’m not having a go at you, dear. I’m, we’re, just delighted to see you.”

Bernie smiles and looks down at the plate she is scrubbing. Her grandmother continues.

“Serena seems lovely.”

Here it comes.

“She is.”

“Are you happy ?”

And Bernie feels her grandmother’s hand come to rest on her arm. She looks at it, the loose wrinkled freckled skin, the now gnarled fingers. Don’t run away, it seems to say, stay, you are safe.  Slowly Bernie turns her head to look at her grandmother.

She swallows cautiously, “I am. Very.”

“Then I’m glad.”

And Bernie exhales slowly as she turns back to the sink. There. It is said. And it is ok. She blinks as the tears brim in her eyes, and hopes her grandmother can’t see as one spills and plops lightly into the soapy water below. But though her grandmother’s eyes may be dimming, she still sees all where Bernie is concerned. Bernie feels the hand, still on her arm, squeeze gently.

“I take it my daughter did not react well ?”

An understatement, Bernie thinks. The slap around her face. The sting. The “we will never speak of this again” and “you will never bring a girlfriend of yours into this house”, still echo in her head. The cold rejection. The fury. The shame. Not even Serena knows just how bad it was. Some things are best left unrepeated.

Bernie shakes her head.

“Well, you are both welcome here.”

*******

When Bernie enters the sitting room, she sees Serena anxiously snap her head up towards her. She knows she will have been anxious, distracted, worrying about what might have been said. Wants to rush over and grab her and say it’s ok. Knows Serena will be thinking back to the angry crushed Bernie that returned from that visit to her mother. To the dreadful silences that spoke of pain and rejection in ways that Bernie couldn’t voice. So she smiles at Serena and nods her head, slightly, almost imperceptibly, and watches Serena take a breath and relax, smiling back up at her.

The relief and the elation gathers and grows in her like bread dough rising and swelling, and as they clamber into the car Bernie can no longer contain it. She leans over to Serena, takes her head in both hands and pulls it towards her, planting her mouth against hers, and whispering against her lips, “I love you, Serena, so much.”

She is oblivious to her grandparents still standing on the doorstep to see them off. Her grandfather starts, “What the blazes ….?” but again a hand falls on his arm, steady, calm.

“Stop Tom. Have you ever seen her this happy ?”

He hesitates. Thinks. Watches as Bernie sits back in her seat, one hand now on the steering wheel, the other turning the ignition key. Sees the look on Bernie’s face. It is of joy. Of confidence. He remembers the quiet little girl who would come to stay. The one who watched, who spoke little, the one who waited. Remembers the weeks it took to unlock her, to coax her free, to let the energy and the laughter spill out of her. It is a look of someone who knows who, and why, she is. He nods, satisfied. And raises his hand to wave at the car and its occupants as they pull away.

“Now come inside old man. I need you to help me put the pullout away. I think we can dispense with that before they return tonight.”

And he follows his wife back into the house.

 

 


End file.
